Prakash Bal Joshi

Born in Achalpur in Amrawati of Maharashtra,Prakash Bal Joshi is a self taught artist, he spent a long time working on natural forms and through sheer observation and practice, mastered the finer nuances and subtleties of abstract art forms. As a painter, he is spontaneous and his work is the culmination of deep thought process posing basic fundamental questions regarding his own existence. He switches effortlessly from using a pen to write his inner thoughts and observations to a pencil or a brush to express much more complicated inner turmoil. He has been holding pen and pencil together for more than three decades.His keen sense of observation also comes from being a veteran Mumbai based journalist working with The Times of India He covered major socio-political developments and urban issues in and around Mumbai metorpolitan. His first solo show was held at Artist's Centre, Mumbai, in June 2006 included drawings in ink and abstract paintings based on inner perceptions of nature. Here, landscapes and human figures intermingle to form their own unique shapes and textures. Reflecting an inner turmoil, the paintings basically revolve around the eternal dilemma : who am I and why do I draw He has to his credit two sharply crafted books, Maitrinichi Goshta ( A Friend's Story) in 1984 and Gateway in 1993,show a sensitive writer grappling with the complexities and contradictions of an urban lifestyle. Both the books are interspersed with thought-provoking sketches . His recent work during 2007 has taken on a fresh dimension and can be seen as an exploration for new perspectives. His search led him to Saraswati, a mystical river which disappeared thousands of years ago from Indian subcontinent. Some believe that it is still running at a subterranean level while others fell that it has simply disappeared due to climatic changes affecting earth thousands of years ago. The artist lives and works in Mumbai.